Asbestos campaigners win landmark victory


Asbestos campaigners are celebrating a Supreme Court ruling that they can access court documents used in a legal case against the asbestos manufacturer Cape Intermediate Holdings Limited. 


Supported by Leigh Day solicitors partner Harminder Baines, Graham Dring, brought the action on behalf of the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK to access documents that were due to be destroyed. 


He believes they will reveal research carried out within the asbestos industry and the influence it had on setting UK health and safety standards that still apply. 


“There will be ongoing negotiations about access, but this is a huge victory,” Dring told Labour Research. “The really important time will be when the forum gets the documents, the bulk of which we are expecting after October.”


The case will have implications well beyond the asbestos industry. It is about how much of the written information placed before the court in a civil action should be accessible to people who are not parties to the proceedings, and how this should be made accessible to them. 


Delivering the judgment of the court, Lady Hale, Supreme Court president, said: “The constitutional principle of open justice applies to all courts and tribunals exercising the judicial power of the state.”


Baines said the ruling “is a landmark decision for access to documents to non-parties and a victory for open justice”. It will reinforce the right of the public and the media to access trial documents.

www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2019/38.html

https://www.leighday.co.uk/News/2019/July-2019/Supreme-Court-rules-in-favour-of-asbestos-support